Cabot steps up as world player with opening of new courses at Citrus Farms, Saint Lucia

Cabot Citrus Farms, by contrast, doesn’t have the cliffs or the trade winds or the Caribbean accents. What the Karoo does have is sand, and for golf architects and developers, that’s like sticking a shovel into the ground and striking gold.

A sandy base provides ideal drainage, allowing for firm and bouncy playing surfaces across which a ball can roll great distances. Sand is at the heart of all true links courses in Great Britain and Ireland, and it was sand that Keiser sought when he was introduced to the coastal site that became Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, which served as inspiration to Cowan-Dewar.

Perched on a landform known as the Brooksville Ridge that is blessed with ancient sand dunes, Cabot Citrus Farms sits atop the former World Woods Golf Club, which was home to two courses designed by Tom Fazio and opened in 1991. Those courses ranked highly, playing through oaks and pines with occasional exposed sand, traversing gently rolling hills that equate almost to mountains in typically flat Florida. But the club was never a financial success under previous ownership, and playing conditions often suffered.

Enter Cowan-Dewar, who bought World Woods in January of 2022 and kicked into frenetic pace a top-to-bottom plan to reinvigorate the property in the wake of a golf boom that started during COVID-19.

“We had thought, this might be the time to buy a couple of assets,” Cowan-Dewar said. “To see the progress and how we were able to get that turned and to market is pretty extraordinary.”

Cowan-Dewar said that from the start, Citrus Farms was a simpler project than Point Hardy, the site of which he first visited eight years ago. Planning permissions were easier to obtain for a site that already held golf courses, and its U.S. location also helped put Citrus Farms on the fast track, with Franz designing the Karoo in the footprint of World Woods’ former Pine Barrens course.

Franz cut his teeth as an associate for other designers two decades ago, including interning for Tom Doak at the exquisite Pacific Dunes layout that opened in 2001 at Bandon Dunes. Franz has gone on to several solo original projects but might be best known for his historic restorations to Mid Pines, Pine Needles and Southern Pines, each a Donald Ross design near Pinehurst, North Carolina.

In those well-received restorations, Franz was focused on reinstating the design vision of one of the game’s masters. At Cabot Citrus Farms, he wanted to take what he had learned from studying the masters and apply those concepts in new ways. And he certainly didn’t want to build a typical Florida resort course, rife with water hazards and soft conditions.

The short par-4 15th offers two fairway options divided by sand at Cabot Citrus Farms’ Karoo Course. (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)

“We definitely wanted something different,” he said from behind the 18^th green in December of 2023, watching a handful of golfers wrap up an early preview round on the Karoo.

And different, it most certainly is. Players who experienced World Woods might hardly recognize the place. Thousands of trees were cleared, opening the landscape to light, breezes and long views. Franz dug into the precious sand, exposing vast swathes of waste area that frequently come into play. Most of the holes play through the same corridors installed for the old Pine Barrens, but Franz reversed the playing direction for several holes.

Seven holes of the Karoo offer split fairways, either with cross bunkers and center-line traps or, in several cases, with entirely separate fairways that make a player choose left or right, tacking to best approach the hole location on a given day. These tee shot options are a strength of the Karoo, forcing players to choose a line, pick a club, then commit – a mistake with any of those three will likely lead to a ball in the sand. The 18^th hole even has what amounts to a triple fairway divided by sand, playing much like the finisher at the famously defunct Lido on Long Island (recently recreated in Wisconsin at Sand Valley Resort.)

Unlike Coore and Crenshaw – whose shaping is frequently described as minimalistic, unobtrusive and naturally low to the ground – Franz’s work at the Karoo is much more in a player’s face. He introduced sometimes extreme mounds, bounces, traps and roll-outs, using classical strategic principles in new ways that can be described both as bold and frequently frustrating for a player.

The Karoo’s greens are huge, many of them 50 yards deep or more with plenty of slopes – both within the greens and among their surrounds – to deflect golf balls. Nos. 1 and 6 share a massive double green that stretches for some 100 yards. With tiny and tough-to-approach sections often hidden by mounds within the larger overall putting surfaces, these greens offer plenty of chances at 3- and even 4-putts.

Several greens have tiny bunkers set deep within their general outlines with flanks of putting surface on either side, much like some of those constructed by George C. Thomas Jr. at Los Angeles Country Club, site of last year’s U.S. Open. The green at the par-3 16^th doesn’t have such a bunker within its confines, but it does feature a finger of taller grass carving up the middle, the putting surface curved somewhat like a horseshoe around it – it will be entirely possible that players will select a wedge when playing from one side of the green to the other.

Architects Pete Dye (of TPC Sawgrass, Kiawah Island and Whistling Straits fame, among many others) and Mike Strantz (Tobacco Road, Caledonia and a handful of others) were known as bold designers, welcoming the opportunity to constantly challenge players with extreme mounds, deep traps and challenging green shapes. Franz’s shaping at the Karoo definitely brings their work to mind. There has been a surge of interest from a new and frequently younger group of golfers in recent years looking for an adventurous and unconventional style of golf, and the Karoo certainly fits that description.

The Squeeze at Cabot Citrus Farms is a 10-hole short course with many half-par holes. Courtesy of Cabot/Matt Majka)

Cabot Citrus Farms also will be home to The Roost, which was still in rough shaping as of December – its 18 holes will need to be finished and quickly grassed to meet the targeted opening for preview play in the spring of 2024.

Already in play are the 11-hole Wedge and 10-hole Squeeze, each a short course that plays very differently than the other. The Wedge features shorter holes, and it’s ideal for players looking to carry just three clubs for a fun hour hitting to creative little par-3 greens. The Squeeze, meanwhile, features longer holes and a scorecard full of half pars – many of the holes play just at or beyond most players’ driver distance, offering a fun chance to whack balls at flags 250 yards away.

Combined with a huge putting course and a technology-laden driving range, the entire golf atmosphere should be a blast for resort guests looking to play and practice all kinds of golf shots. As Keiser advised Cowan-Dewar, put the golf first – the game in all its various forms is certainly the emphasis at Cabot Citrus Farms.